We Have Met the Enemy

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For several decades we watched national public school test score averages continue to plummet despite throwing larger amounts of our treasury at the problem. What’s gone wrong? This is a question I asked several dozen friends last month who are professional or personal acquaintances. Hardly a scientific polling method but one that revealed what I had suspected: There is no widely held consensus clearly defining the problem nor is there a panacea for effectively solving the problem. Several categories did repeatedly arise in the blame game that are worth sharing and analyzing along with my vote for Public Culprit #1.

Unfunded mandates was a complaint registered by several people polled, including most teachers. Our dysfunctional Legislature in Harrisburg and equally dysfunctional Congress in Washington are infected with career politicians on both sides of the aisle. These Pols can’t resist the temptation of passing politically correct legislation that inadvertently retards rather than aids in the education process. From the perspective of most teachers interviewed, a problem poster child is President Bush’s well intentioned, but counterproductive, No Child Left Behind Act. I’m about three light years outside the public school teaching community but it was obvious from day one that this would result in, "teaching to the test" and "fudging" test results. Unfortunately, the program also inadvertently punishes innovation and a demand for excellence by dedicated teachers. It is a classic example of the road to Hell being paved with good intentions by trying to micromanage local school districts from the state and federal capitals. It’s also a penalty we pay for those "free" government funds flowing down to the district. We save a nickel that costs us a dollar once we go to the trough. Unfunded mandates are a serious problem but still don’t get my vote as the #1 culprit.

Another major complaint from teachers polled was the growing army of "overpaid" administrators who spend little or no time in the classroom. Sarcastically speaking, I’ve always felt it cruel and unusual punishment to be subjected to the esoteric graduate work needed to secure a Doctorate in Education. It seems more like a hazing ritual than preparation for the real world management of a modern public school system. Maybe an MBA, with an emphasis on labor relations, might be more appropriate. However, The growing number of administrators today is more due to those unfunded mandates we already mentioned.
I’ve done a mental inventory of all the school administrators I’ve worked with as a consulting engineer over the years. There were far more good ones who earned their salt than feather merchants on the fringes. Real live saints like Joe Clark, an inner city principal immortalized in the film "Lean on Me", isn’t the only hero in this category.
Administrators aren’t perfect but they don’t get my vote as the #1 culprit.

Probably the most frequent complaint I heard in my polling, especially from parents, was bad teachers being protected by their union, The Pennsylvania Education Association. I’m not sure but maybe the complaints are actually frustration over out of control school operating costs rather than a direct impact on the decline of student performance. Regardless, the direct and indirect impact of organized labor on student performance is worth discussing.
Ironically the father of modern Democratic Liberalism, Franklin D Roosevelt, warned us seventy years ago about the slippery slope of allowing organized labor into the public sector. President Roosevelt recognized the automatic conflict of interest that would result when the same politician representing the taxpayer was beholden to campaign contributions and block voting. It would be like having Jimmy Hoffa and John L Lewis sit on the National Labor Relations Board. Unfortunately, during the Kennedy Administration the restrictions began to fall. Today Pennsylvania is one of 13 states giving public school unions the power to strike. To add insult to injury, public school teachers who for practical or philosophical reasons decide not to join the union, still have their salary involuntary garnished to pay for "their fair share" in collective bargaining. Somewhere in the Kremlin, laughter is heard coming from Stalin’s crypt. Looks like FDR nailed it!
We lead the states in teacher strikes. The epidemic has caused many parents to rename the PEA, The Pennsylvania Extortion Association .That’s because the rise in two working parent families gives the union a bludgeon. A strike would interrupt what a growing number of parents perceive as quality child daycare services ( the education is a bonus).
Unprofessional behavior exhibited by teachers in civil disobedience demonstrations like Madison Wisconsin has also damaged the image of public school teachers as community role models. The more recent Chicago strike should also put an end the NEA shibboleth that the kids come first.
Despite these less than flattering synapses of public school unions, they still do not get my vote as Public Culprit #1. The damage they are doing to Pennsylvania parents is more to the pocketbook than student performance. As skyrocketing property taxes kick in just down the road, John Q Taxpayer will demand, via the ballet box, the repeal of "The Happy Times" for teacher and other public sector unions. There’s not enough money in Fort Knox to sustain the upward spiral of salaries and golden parachutes.
When common sense is restored the big winners will be, students, parents, taxpayers, and the vast majority of competent school teachers who have a passion and a gift for teaching. Civil Service Commissions and professional associations will be their protection from potential abuses by district school boards.

Unfunded mandates, ineffective administrators, and teachers unions are contributors to the national epidemic of falling student performance but the product of this unholy trilogy doesn’t match the impact of my selection as Public Culprit #1: Poor or lack of parenting gets my vote!
To quote Walt Kelly’s comic strip philosopher, Pogo: " We have met the enemy and he is us". Somewhere along the line Family Values went from being a high priority virtue to a subject of ridicule. Retired Senator Dan Quayle dared to mention Family Values in a public debate. The Hollywood elite backed by the ultra liberal arm of Congress chastised him relentlessly. When former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich had the audacity to suggest the resurrection of the orphanage as an alternative to direct parent aid supplied to totally dysfunctional households, he was also severely criticized for his candidness. A cornucopia of well intentioned welfare programs has inadvertently provided the resources to create an atmosphere of drugs, alcohol, child abuse, and AWOL dads in far too many homes.

There’s good news and bad news in the falling national average for student scores. The good news is that in the Northern Tier poor student performance is the exception. When compared to the limited resources and available transportation of the early 19th century, local students today are the big winners. Average student scores in the Northern Tier have not declined to the same extent as the national average but that is no reason for apathy. Dysfunctional families exist here in the Northern Tier with parents who blame the schools for their kids’ failure. Methinks it’s a textbook example of subliminal guilt.

The bad news is, in large towns and most cities where the largest student populations reside, the public school systems are a pathetic mess. These are the same districts that, fifty years ago, provided the best educational experience in the country. Efforts to salvage the education of students raised in homes with good parenting, but trapped in their locally assigned dysfunctional public school, are thwarted. Union bosses and politicians are determined to maintain "The Happy Times". Big paydays or payback take priority over Charter Schools, vouchers, or parental choice.

The French taught us in WWI that triage on the battlefield minimizes loss of life. Urban public school districts have become an educational battleground.

Stratton Schaeffer
Retired Consulting Engineer and Farmer
October, 2012